Soldier plea for discharge, Baton Rouge, 1863

Description

Pvt. John Frazier of Co. B of the 12th Maine Regiment wrote to Brig. Gen. George F. Shepley, military governor of Louisiana, seeking a discharge from service to return home to Portland to help his mother and help care for two ill siblings.

Frazier and Shepley knew one another from Portland, where both had lived before the war. Frazier's father, John A. Frazier, had enlisted in the 12th Maine, but was in a military hospital in Augusta, leaving the family without support. The father also had sent a plea to Shepley for the son's release.

A note on the back of the letter suggests that Frazier could not be discharged without a surgeon's note of disability.